NBC to launch new preschool block on July 7th

TV by the Numbers has posted a press release by NBC announcing a new Saturday morning preschool block called "NBC kids" produced by PBS Kids Sprout (which NBC/Comcast owns part of) beginning July 7th.

From the press release:

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – March 28, 2012 -- NBC will launch NBC Kids, a new Saturday morning programming block designed specifically to address the developmental needs of preschool-aged children, premiering on Saturday, July 7. Programmed by the kids experts at Sprout, the nation's first 24-hour preschool television channel, this new three-hour block will feature educational series that promote active, healthy lifestyles for younger children.

NBC Kids will include the U.S. broadcast premieres of quality, preschool series “The Wiggles," Sprout’s “Noodle & Doodle,” Jim Henson's “Pajanimals,” “Poppy Cat," “Justin Time,” as well as the popular “LazyTown,” designed to encourage healthy eating and exercise.

I'm not sure why NBC Universal would go through all of the trouble to lease the block to the Hub when they have programming readily available already. They're part owner of PBS Kids Sprout, which is why the new block makes sense. Comcast owned a piece of PBS Sprout prior to acquiring NBC Universal while Qubo was partly owned by NBC Universal. It appears that parent company Comcast has decided to focus on its own branding (it helped launch PBS Sprout) rather than a brand that they acquired.

I'm surprised that NBC is getting 'Lazytown'. That will mean that the network will be full of nothing but reruns. As for the other shows, they better have new episodes or this block will be a bigger dud than the corpse that still lives among us with Qubo.

Qubo is also an entire channel, and piggybacks off Ion Television to appear in most areas. They'll be fine.

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Try telling that to viewers like myself who don't get Ion thanks to a lack of local station (I live in the Springfield MA area by the way). Also, my cable company (Charter, the same guys who are still sticking with the zombie known as Soap Net instead of taking Disney Junior over some "bad deal" baloney) doesn't get it either.